HAM ON RYE (First UK edition - first impression - paperback original)

Charles Bukowski (Roddy Doyle - intoduction)

ISBN 10: 086241993X / ISBN 13: 9780862419936

Published by Rebel Inc. (An imprint of Canongate Books), Edinburgh, 2000

About this Item

First impression of the true first UK edition - a paperback original. With a six page introduction by Roddy Doyle specially written for this edition. The book was originally published in the USA by Black Sparrow Press in 1982. ***Near fine in colour-illustrated card covers. Edges of covers just slightly rubbed. No creases or tears. No bumps. Corners sharp. Covers clean. No reading creases to the spine. Internally also near fine with no inscriptions. Spine tight. ***318 pages. 215mm x 130mm. ***'"Ham on Rye" follows the path of legendary barfly Charles Bukowski's alter-ego Henry Chinaski through the turbulent years of high school and college and into the beginning of a long and successful career in alcoholism. Ham on Rye is Charles Bukowski's fourth novel and the most moving of all his books, dealing with his early years in Los Angeles, and in particular with his difficult relationship with his father. The novel begins against the backdrop of an America devastated by the Depression and takes the Chinaski legend up to the bombing of Pearl Harbour'. ***"This Rebel Inc edition marks the first UK publication of what is arguably Bukowski's finest work and has a specially commissioned introduction by Roddy Doyle."' ***"A scorching account of a childhood, an adolescence, a life of ugliness, pain, escape, alcohol, loneliness. Often it's funny - often it's disturbing - Ham on Rye is a powerful book." - Roddy Doyle (Quote and review taken from the back cover) ***'Henry Charles Bukowski [Aug 16, 1920 - Mar 9, 1994] was a German-born American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles. His work addresses the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women, and the drudgery of work. Bukowski wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories and six novels, eventually publishing over 60 books. The FBI kept a file on him as a result of his column Notes of a Dirty Old Man in the LA underground newspaper Open City. Bukowski published extensively in small literary magazines and with small presses beginning in the early 1940s and continuing on through the early 1990s. As noted by one reviewer, "Bukowski continued to be, thanks to his antics and deliberate clownish performances, the king of the underground and the epitome of the littles in the ensuing decades, stressing his loyalty to those small press editors who had first championed his work and consolidating his presence in new ventures such as the New York Quarterly, Chiron Review, or Slipstream." Some of these works include his "Poems Written Before Jumping Out of an 8 Story Window", published by his friend and fellow poet Charles Potts, and better known works such as "Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame". These poems and stories were later republished by John Martin's Black Sparrow Pres as collected volumes of his work. Regarding Bukowski's enduring popular appeal, Adam Kirsch of The New Yorker wrote, "the secret of Bukowski's appeal [is that] he combines the confessional poet's promise of intimacy with the larger-than-life aplomb of a pulp-fiction hero." Since his death in March 1994, Bukowski has been the subject of a number of critical articles and books about both his life and writings, despite his work having received relatively little attention from academic critics in the United States during his lifetime. In contrast, Bukowski enjoyed extraordinary fame in Europe, the UK and particularly in Germany, the place of his birth. (Wiki) ***A nice near fine copy of the first UK paperback edition of this classic work by Bukowski - published as a paperback original. Surprisingly uncommon. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.

Seller Inventory # PB157x

Bibliographic Details

• Title: HAM ON RYE (First UK edition - first impression - paperback original)
• Publisher: Rebel Inc. (An imprint of Canongate Books), Edinburgh
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 086241993X
• ISBN 13: 9780862419936
• Binding: Original Wraps
• Edition: First UK Edition
• Printing: First Impression
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket, as Issued
• Seller catalogs:
  • First Editions
  • Collectable Paperbacks
  • Beat Writers & Counter Culture

About this title

Synopsis

This work, by legendary barfly Charles Bukowski, follows the path of his alter-ego Henry Chinaski through the high school years of acne and rejection, drinking his way through the Depression, and ends emotionally at the start of World War II. It captures the battered feelings of a true outcast.

Review

Charles Bukowski's fourth novel, Ham on Rye, is the semi-autobiographical story of the early years of his alter ego Henry Chinaski. It is a finely written and honest account of the painful childhood of a boy marked out from his peers. Regularly beaten by his father, Chinaski is shown growing through his difficult and violent adolescence (struck with the worst case of acne his doctors have ever seen) through to the first jobs he can't and won't hold down. In this moving story of growing up Bukowski disciplines his muscular, concentrated writing and creates a novel that distils his poetry into the finest full-length piece of prose that he ever wrote. Bukowski is often good but in Ham on Rye he's great.

Sadly, best known as the alcoholic inspiration for the film Barfly (an experience he reflected on in his book Hollywood), it is as a poet, rather than a drunk, that Bukowski should be best remembered. His bitter, caustic, direct, humane, damaged poetry reflects a life dominated by poverty and booze. His poetry stretches over many, many volumes but Bukowski also wrote great novels: all of them have many faults but the first four books he wrote shine for similar reasons. Post Office and Factotum both dissect, quite brilliantly, the life of an angry, poor man forced to do mindless jobs, pushed around and considered mindless by the fools who force him to do them. Women, as Roddy Doyle points out in his short introduction, continues the themes but focuses on the numerous women who share his hero's bed and bottle. --Mark Thwaite